You don't have to look far in genealogy to see that the first recommendation is to start in the modern day, usually with yourself, and work UP your family tree. This is by far the better way to discover your ancestry.
Well..... I just started volunteering for a group that want to figure out how to do it, to my mind, backwards. They want me (and others) to start with someone in the past and come into the present. I have personally tried this once or twice and found it very difficult. Frustratingly difficult. As part of the project I'm working on, the organization holes to develop a methodology for doing genealogy in this way.
And so, I am reaching out to all of you. What would be your hints in doing research with a past record as a starting point? What would your methodology look like?
I've actually researched this way quite a bit over the years and it has become a lot easier. Always track your land to find your man. I'm fortunate to have Ancestry, which helps grouping records together, but don't hesitate to use the USGenweb to see what the older county genealogical sites still have online. I start with a family group sheet, paper or digital, and fill in whatever information is available to begin with so you have a good idea of what you need to find. Then I start searching census records for up to 10 decades, saving the ones I think I need. Always review the 2-3 pages before and after the page/record you are keeping and save any additional pages with the surname you are researching. These families are most likely related. Record all family members names and information found in the census records on your FGS. Then fully cite your sources for the information. You will create a FGS for every individual you research and can usually establish the individual's parents, siblings, approximate birth years, and state(s) where everyone was born. Next, search for marriage records. Most occurred 1-2 years prior to the firstborn's birth year. If census records indicate the family stayed in the same county for 50-60 years, look for marriages of additional family members. Then look for any probate records in that county.
If the census records show the family moved from one location to another during the person's lifespan, create a timeline with locations and any family changes along the way; more children born or adults/children listed previously not listed on later census. census. Cite your sources! You will want to know later on where you found the information. This step is also important to me because it significantly narrows down where to look for personal tax records and documents that legally establishes when the person or family moved to that county (usually the same year the name of the head of household first appears in the personal tax records), and real property records, which give the specific dates of land purchases, or establishing a homestead claims.
When researching from the past going forward, tract the dates of the original acquisition of the land by our country first, then establish when the land was surveyed by the US Government in preparation for settlement. I live in NW Arkansas and the land here was surveyed in the early to mid 1830's. These Original Surveys did not get approved by Washington until the early 1840's, when Land Patents were finally issued to settlers. Washington County, Arkansas Territory, was established in 1828, Lovely County existed from 1824-1828, and before that Arkansas was part of the Territory of Missouri. Personal tax records, also known as Sheriff's Censuses, are very helpful establishing the actual year people settled because it was the responsibility of the county's sheriff to locate new settlers as soon as possible after arrival, assess their personal property, and levy the taxes required to be paid by the end of that year. The more people assessed and taxed, the higher the pay he received. Most land patents in Benton County, Ark. weren't issued until 10-15 years later when the surveys were finally approved. This difference in the dates of the records can create confusion sometimes for researchers.
From there, reading family histories published in local genealogy/history publications, newspaper articles, probate records, church records, cemetery records, military, and personal diaries related to your person adds those details of their daily lives. Be willing to accept the fact that the story your ancestors passed down may not be completely true. I'm the black sheep, trouble-making genealogist in my family because we had always been told that three of my Great Grandparent's children died in Holmes County, Mississippi during the Civil War, which wasn't true. I found the two oldest children living with my GG Grandparents in Sunflower County, Mississippi in 1870, and the other daughter living with other relatives in Southern Arkansas. My Great Grandmother, Hulda Scott (Mathis) McClellan, could not find enough food to continue feeding their four children so she made the heartbreaking decision to give the youngest three to the parents and family of her husband, James Samuel McClellan, who was in the Confederate Army, to take care of and that is how the story got started. My Great Grandmother, Hulda, was Mississippi Choctaw, and, as I understand it, in Choctaw culture, if you give your children to another person/family to feed and take care of them because you can't, they are no longer your children and have "died" to you. And that was the story passed down and believed for nearly 100 years.
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